


Star Gazing

by Skylin3



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Claudeleth is the OTP, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Love, OTP Feels, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Pre-Relationship, Star Gazing, Taken from A support I suppose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:20:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25624285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylin3/pseuds/Skylin3
Summary: Byleth can't sleep so she decides to go for some fresh air... except she runs into a familiar Alliance leader...
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 1
Kudos: 33





	Star Gazing

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! I just wanted to share a very quick and fluffy piece for my OTP of 3H! Took me a while to decide on one to be honest, but I think I'm fully set on Claudeleth. This is a bit of a gift, but not exactly for a friend... so we'll let the gift section slide for now...
> 
> Anywho, I hope you enjoy it! See ya later!

It was late at night. Byleth couldn’t sleep as the painful memory of all the students she lost since the war started came back to haunt her. She heard their cries of anguish and countless remarks branding her a traitor from both the empire and the kingdom. She never truly understood her feelings on many matters, but it was moments like these where she wished things were different. She wanted to ensure the safety of all her previous students and friends, but she wasn’t ignorant to the fact that it wasn’t possible, at least not anymore. 

She let out a frustrated sigh, before rising from her bed and heading out of her room. Nighttime at the monastery was always calm and soothing to the ashen warrior. The moonlight illuminated the vast night sky as she looked up to see the various stars hanging in the atmosphere. She couldn’t help but form a small smile on her lips seeing the view. 

“It’s a beautiful night isn’t it, Teach?” a voice spoke to her from behind. 

“Oh hello, Claude,” Byleth addressed him rather distantly.

“What? That’s all I get? Not even a reply to the beauty of this night?” Claude teased. “Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter anyway,” he laughed, but when he saw no emotion come from her, he quickly rubbed the back of his neck. _“Sheesh, she’s always been a tough one to crack…”_

Silence settled for a moment between the two of them. Byleth turned away from Claude and looked up at the stars. Claude felt a sense of uneasiness around the professor. Sure she always had a stone-face on her around others, but on a previous night they spent a moment together, she had been more vocal and reacted more. He knew how much this war must’ve been affecting everyone, especially her. He felt lucky that he never grew close to anyone at the academy, but he couldn’t say the same for her… 

“Hey, Teach? What’s bothering you?” he tried to pry again. 

“Why do you have such a sudden interest me, Claude?” she asked with a cold stare in her eyes. 

“What do you mean ‘sudden?’ I thought I made it clear I’ve always been interested in you. I never really know what’s going on inside your head and sometimes that worries me,” he admitted, his voice became quiet for a moment before he spoke up again. “I get this sense that you’re bottling up your emotions because you don’t how to express yourself.”

Byleth flinched at his insinuation, causing Claude to give her a sly smirk.

“So I was right.”

“It doesn’t concern you! Besides, you can’t tell me that when I don’t even know who you really are ‘Claude!’ Or whatever your real name is!” 

That was sudden to the Alliance leader. It wasn’t like her to suddenly bring up something that had no relevance to the conversation. Whatever was truly plaguing her mind, he knew it had nothing to do with his name or identity. He could tell how frustrated she was, but before he could say anything else, she had begun to speak up again.

“My apologies, that was out of line for me,” she cast her eyes down, feeling shameful for berating him when he only offered to help. “I just… I still hear their voices sometimes. Their cries as they begged to be spared, and even I wasn’t the one to kill them, I still didn’t stop it…”

“Byleth…” Claude looked at her, now more aware of what’s been torturing her.

“That’s new from you… You never call me by my name,” she smiled weakly at him.

“I’m sorry, I just thought that—”

Byleth waved her hand in front of him, “It’s fine. It just sounds nice coming from you…” she paused for a moment, allowing her to relax. “Remember what you told me that night about the stars? How that was what you would do when you couldn’t sleep?”

“I do,” Claude nodded.

“Well I thought that doing so would help me, but I truly don’t know the first thing of expressing myself… properly that is. I’ve always been somewhat stone-faced as you put it,” she said, sighing with a gentle smile.

Claude didn’t know if he should’ve felt some regret for either telling her that, or that she too saw herself as such. He had only meant it in jest because if he was honest with himself, she had changed a lot since they met. At first, she was just was a stone-faced professor, but the more he spent time with her and got to know the small side about her, the more he knew that isn’t wasn’t her fault for being so emotionless. He had his suspicions, but he wondered if Rhea had been responsible for her lack of emotion. Though it wouldn’t matter now one or the other because at least now she had been able to open up more. (Even if it was just with him most of the time.)

He was quite the fool for falling for such an emotionally stunted professor, but it was that same mystery about her that kept him always wanting to learn more about her. Of course, he hadn’t told her that and he wouldn’t anytime soon, but he just couldn’t help but smile to himself. 

“What’s so funny?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Oh, it’s nothing… but about what you told me earlier…” Claude said, clearing his throat so his words flowed out smoothly. “I can’t promise that I will rid of those voices right now, but I can help you start at least.”

“Is that so?” she smiled, curiosity filling her eyes. 

“Yeah, come with me for a moment,” Claude took her hand and had her follow him.

She didn’t protest and instead went along with it, trusting him wholeheartedly. Claude led her throughout the halls of the monastery. Turn after turn, hall after hall, and eventually, they were at the wyvern stable. Claude had her wait outside the stable as he went inside to fetch his signature wyvern. By the time he came back, a beautiful white wyvern emerged from the stable, with Claude gently guiding it outside.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Hop on, we’re gonna go flying for a bit,” he smiled at her warmly. “I promise she doesn’t bite.”

Byleth did so almost immediately. She wasn’t entirely sure what Claude hoped to gain from this, but humoring him was the least she could do. After she settled herself nicely on the wyvern’s saddle, Claude joined her, taking his seat in front of her. He turned back to look at her and gave her a casual wink.

“Hang on tight, wouldn’t want you to fall, now would we?”

Byleth rolled her eyes at his suggestive glance, before wrapping her arms around his waist. She noticed Claude had flinched a bit from her sudden action, though she found that she was holding on to him too tightly. She saw the look on his face, and she could immediately tell that he just impressed with her strength. She loosened her grip ever so slightly but still hung on tight enough to feel him close to her.

Once they finally settled, Claude commanded his wyvern to fly. In a matter of seconds, the pair soared into the air. Byleth watched as Claude’s hair flowed with the wind, and couldn’t help but continue to look. She didn’t quite know what she was feeling, other than that her chest had begun to feel warm. Before she could think on it longer, the wyvern had suddenly slowed down as it glided through the sky.

“Is something wrong Claude?” she looked to him only to see him beaming at her.

“Nothing’s wrong,” he reassured her. “Just look up for a moment.”

She listened and was immediately enamored by the massive moon sitting in the sky. The stars seemed like they were within reach compared to before. The view was simply too stunning for Byleth to formulate her feelings into words at the moment. 

“That’s the reaction I was hoping for,” Claude chuckled softly.

“I don’t think I can say anything other than it’s beautiful…” she said.

“That’s all I needed to hear, Tea—I mean, Byleth,” he almost regretted calling her by her real name again. But when he looked at her again, she was just smiling.

“You used my name again, I think I could get used to that you know?” she gave him a caring look, before closing her eyes and letting the cool breeze move delicately on her face.

Claude nodded before pointing at her to look up at the stars again. They sat on the wyvern quietly taking in the vast view of the night sky as they glided through the clouds. There was something so relaxing of seeing the stars from a much closer view that enthralled the both of them. 

Claude had gotten used to doing this as of late, but he had never done it with anyone else. He looked at Byleth again and saw how soft her expression had become. It was no longer the facade stone face or the tortured look she had earlier. She was simply at peace from what he could tell. He looked at the stars again before closing his eyes and letting out a relaxed sigh.

“It’s Khalid by the way,” Claude spoke up randomly.

Byleth gave him a confused stare, wondering what he meant, “What?”

“My name, you said you didn’t know my real name, so I thought I should tell you,” He answered calmly.

“It’s a beautiful name,” she said in a soft voice. “I’m glad you trust me with this… I promise no one else will know.”

“Yeah,” he stated quietly.

They spent a few more moments together gazing up at the stars. After a while, Claude had felt something rest on his back. When he turned to look, he saw Byleth was fast asleep, letting out peaceful and quiet breaths. A content smile formed across his lips as he gave his wyvern the signal to descend. 

“Go easy alright girl? Wouldn’t want to wake her up.”

As Claude descended from the skies, he couldn’t help but feel accomplished for today. Though it was only for a short while, he got to spend time with the person he cared for the most. And even if it had got off to a rocky start, in the end, it was worth it. Although his feelings for her would have to wait, they still had a war to win after all. But for now, he was just going to make sure that she made it back to her room, and wish her a good night.


End file.
